“Taxi” (Harry Chapin)

Today’s classic song of the day is “Taxi” by Harry Chapin. Released in March of 1972, this is the song that launched and defined Mr. Chapin’s career. An extremely long song for a single, it peaked at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100.

I’m a sucker for story songs, and “Taxi” is one hell of a story song. In just six minutes and 44 seconds it tells the story of old love lost and dreams abandoned. In a nutshell, the story goes like this:

Harry, the narrator, is a taxi driver in San Francisco. It’s a rainy night and his last passenger is a well-dressed young lady who asks to be driven to an address in the rich part of town. Harry finds her familiar, but she doesn’t recognize him until she glances at his taxi license. Her name is Sue, an old lover from when they both were younger. She wanted to be an actress and Harry wanted to learn to fly. It seems they’d both gotten what they’d asked for, just not in the ways they’d wanted. As the lyrics go:

You see she was gonna be an actress
And I was gonna learn to fly
She took off to find the footlights
And I took off for the sky

And here, she’s acting happy
Inside her handsome home
And me, I’m flying in my taxi
Taking tips and getting stoned

It’s a song that packs a punch, especially for anyone who’s ever run into an old lover several years later. As Harry in the song realizes when Sue gives him $20 for a $2.50 fare, there’s no going back again. What’s done is done and life continues on.

There’s a real story behind this story song—several stories, actually. One version of the song’s origins says Mr. Chapin was inspired to write “Taxi” when he was on the way to take the cabbie test in New York City (not San Francisco) and ran into an old girlfriend. Another version says the song came about when he came across a newspaper article about that same old girlfriend, who’d married some rich guy. Still another says that Harry had gotten his cabbie license and was worried about getting his old girlfriend as a fare. What these and other stories have in common is that old girlfriend, a Barrett Junior College student named Clare McIntyre. Apparently Harry and Clare were both camp counselors at neighboring summer camps when they were in college and struck up a relationship. Clare was the inspiration for Sue—and the rest of the song was just something that Harry made up. He was good at that.

Whatever the story behind the story, Harry (the songwriter) is a terrific storyteller. He just kind of lays out the facts and lets the listener fill things in between the lines. As he once reflected:

“There’s not a single line that tells how the guy or the girl felt. It’s a very cinematic technique. But it’s also a very uneconomical technique. That’s why my songs are so long. I literally put you in that cab and let you experience. It’s a more involving form of music than sitting and hearing somebody sing ‘I’m lonely’.”

“Taxi” was the song that kicked off Harry Chapin’s long and successful career as a singer-songwriter. He debuted the song on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and his performance generated so many calls and telegrams that he was invited back the very next night to do it again. That was the first time that Mr. Carson invited a performer back the next night for an encore performance and led to the single moving up the charts.

Harry Chapin wrote and performed a number of story songs that registered with audiences and racked up impressive sales. These tunes included “W.O.L.D” (#36 in 1973), “Cat’s in the Cradle” (#1, 1974), “I Wanna Learn a Love Song” (#44, 1974), and “Sequel (#23, 1980), the sequel to “Taxi.” He also had a number of songs that weren’t singles but deserved to be, including “A Better Place to Be,” “Circle,” “Mr. Tanner,” “Mail Order Annie,” and “30,000 Pounds of Bananas.”

In addition to his prolific music career, Harry Chapin was a true humanitarian, working diligently to fight world hunger. He co-founded the World Hunger Year organization and gave just as many benefit concerts as he did paid ones. He was one of the good guys.

Unfortunately, even the good die young. On July 16, 1981, he was driving on the Long Island Expressway to a benefit concert at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York, when his car was struck by a semi-trailer truck. He passed away later that day, just 38 years old with a long career ahead of him.

Fortunately for all of us, Harry Chapin’s legacy lives on, in his music and in his good works. He had something inside him, and now it’s in all of us.